I try

Flashback: -

It wasn't until she was parked outside the huge Moonland Pack house that Allen finally realized where she was going. Allen remained seated for a long moment, her seatbelt still buckled and her hands still on the steering wheel.

Taking a few deep, calming breaths, Allen looked up at the house, unaware of the time passing by. Then, before she could overthink it or talk herself out of it, Allen turned off the engine, unbuckled the seatbelt, and stepped out of the car, struggling to stand with her 7-month pregnant belly.

Taking small, hesitant steps, Allen made her way up to the front door, all the while praying to hell that she's doing the right thing. She had no idea what she was going to say or what would even happen, but she knew she at least had to try.

Unfortunately, she could no longer climb up the tree to the Damon window, so she had no choice but to knock on the front door and pray that it was Damon or one of his parents that opened it, not one of his girlfriends or his sister Jazz.

It seemed, however, that the universe wasn't in her favor, because when the door flew open, it was Rose standing there, with her usual sneer and intense gaze, standing tall with her head held up high.

Allen found herself jolting back instinctively.

Rose looked at her with a disgusted gaze, scanning her up and down; her eyes lingered a little longer on her pregnant belly. "What do you want?" She snapped impatiently when she looked back up at her face.

Allen swallowed hard, opening and closing her mouth a few times, struggling to find any words at all. "I umm... I was, uh, h-hoping to t-talk to Da-Damon." She finally stammered, hating herself even more for being so weak and pathetic.

"Damon not here." Rose quickly retorted, but Allen had a strong feeling she was lying.

Allen laid a calming hand on top of her stomach and looked up at Rose with a brave face, trying to fight through the nerves and fear. "I really need to talk to him." Allen insisted.

Rose looked down at her stomach again and said, "You will do no such thing." Rose hissed quietly, piercing her gaze through Allen, who cowered under her and took another step back. "You and your mutt will not ruin my love and future."

"You can't keep us away from him." Allen managed to snap back, "He has a right to know."

Rose just sneered at her for a long moment before disappearing into the house, leaving the door open and Allen standing there, flabbergasted. Before she had time to actually comprehend what was happening, Rose reappeared with a checkbook and pen in hand.

"You will stay away from him." Rose informed her with her beta voice as she filled out a check, "And if you dare to speak to him again or get anywhere near him, I will know and I will take you down."

Allen swallowed hard as she ripped out the check and handed it to her. "Now get out of here." She spat, then headed back into the house and slammed the door shut.

Looking down at the check with more zeros than she's ever seen, Allen took a moment longer to just stand there in shock before turning back to the road and rushing to her car as fast as she could in her state.

As soon as she was back in the car and shut the door, Allen threw the check onto the front seat. With shaking hands, she then proceeded to put the key into the ignition, which took frustratingly long, then started the car and drove off.

It was as she was driving out of the city's borders that her phone, which was laying on the front seat, started ringing, the sound echoing through the silent car. Allen chanced a quick glance at the screen.

A sharp gasp ripped out of her, and the car was slightly wavering when she noticed an unknown name flashing on the screen. Allen was itching to slam the car to a halt, but Rose's threat still echoed loudly in her head, and so she kept her eyes staring ahead, her grip on the wheel hardening as she waited for the ringing to stop.

Present: -

The day after the whole scene at Damon's apartment, Allen reluctantly agrees to meet Damon at a cafe in the city. Fortunately, Damon left it up to her to choose a place, and Allen picks one she knows she'll be comfortable in. She's had enough of feeling out of her element in front of Damon.

It's a small, old-school-style cafe in downtown city, near the city Bridge Park, which is also a place where she knows, or at least hopes, she won't be getting stinky looks from Damon about.

When Allen arrives, Damon is already there, standing outside waiting with his hands in his pockets, and Allen takes a moment to scan him from afar. In their last two encounters, Allen has been so busy trying to get to her son that she didn't really have enough time or presence of mind to really fathom that this was Damon. Her Damon.

Well, not really, not anymore. He is a grown, dashing man now. But he used to be her Damon, and something about that now has Allen's inner omega on edge, struggling to reign it all in.

Especially since there doesn't seem to be any semblance of the Alpha, she used to know in this, well, stranger man. He is far cruelled than Damon used to be, and Allen finds herself wondering what happened to make him such a jerk. A handsome jerk, but still.

After another long moment of just staring at Damon, Allen finally shakes herself out of it and forces herself to get moving. Because all that wallowing only makes her feel worse and makes her yearn for something she has long since lost and can no longer have.

When she approaches Damon, they greet each other awkwardly, then head into the cafe to get a table. Damon opens the door and holds it open for her, and Allen mumbles a 'thank you' and hurries inside, trying not to swoon.

They sit in tense silence as they each scan their menus, and Allen sighs in relief when the waitress finally walks over to take their order. But just as quickly as she came, she's soon gone, leaving Allen alone with Damon.

"Look, Allen, I just want to set this straight first," Damon starts, breaking the silence. "I'm not keeping Alex from you, and I don't want to take him away from you either. I just want a chance to get to know him."

"Why?" Allen snaps, surprising even herself with the simple yet loaded question.

Damon frowns at her. "Why do I want to get to know my own son?" He asks slowly, clearly losing his patience, "After missing out on the first 14 years of his life?"

Well, that went south much quicker than Allen thought it would.

"You already have your own two boys." Allen snaps back, knowing very well that it is far from a valid argument but feeling so out of her depth that she doesn't care about logic anymore.

"They're not... Alex is also my son, and you've been keeping him from me for a long time." Damon retorts in a low voice. They glare at each other in tense silence, which is how the waitress finds them when she approaches their table, a tray with their drinks in hand.

She seems to sense the heavy stiffness stretching between them because she hurries to serve them as quickly as possible, then scurries off.

"You left me." Allen hisses as soon as she's gone, "You are the one that broke it off out of the blue, then ran off as soon as you could."

"I had no choice, and you know it." Allen retorts, "And I know that it doesn't make up for the pain I caused you, but no matter how angry you were at me, you should have still told me."

"I tried to." Allen responds in a small voice, her heart hammering into his chest.

"Yeah, you called once, then never answered when I tried to call back." Damon hisses, glaring at Allen angrily. Then, when the omega doesn't make any further attempt to respond, he just hugs her warm mug as she stares down at it. "I had a right to know."

Ashly's gaze snaps up. "Well, quite frankly, I didn't think you wanted to." Allen tells him sternly, fighting to keep her voice steady, determined to not let it break, "You made it very clear that you didn't want anything to do with me, and by the time I found out, you had already rejected me twice and chosen your lover."

"You still could have called more than once." Damon insists stubbornly.

Allen sighs heavily. "Seriously, Damon?" She questions in incredulity, her shoulder sagging as her whole body devoid of energy, "You rejected me; you were off to start your fancy ass life, and I didn't think you would want me or my child in it."

"But if I'd known..." Damon tries again, but Allen shakes her head and cuts him off.

"It would have ruined all your plans, and I didn't want to be the reason you lost everything." Allen tells him sadly, struggling to keep eye contact, "nor did I want to use my baby as a bargaining chip for you to stay with me."

As Allen's words settle between them, they both just sit there in silence, each staring at their own drink but not making any attempt to drink from them, just allowing them to sit there and get cold.

"Besides, you're married to someone, and -" Allen begins in irritation, but Damon quickly cuts her off.

"What? Maya is not... we're not married." Damon tells him with a frown, "I'm sorry, I just... we announced the divorce, and since you had all those newspaper articles Alex found, I just assumed you knew."

Allen stares at him in shock for a moment, the world around her spinning. "Oh," is all she manages.

"Ashly, I know this is no excuse, and it doesn't make up for anything or heal the pain I've caused you, but my marriage to Maya was miserable; for both of us, there wasn't a single day where either of us was actually happy." Damon tells us here in raw honesty, his voice small and weak, "We were both forced into it; we both had to leave the loves of our lives, and we both hated every single day of it."

Damon bows his head as he clearly tries to compose himself, and Allen just watches him as she tries to fathom what is happening. When Damon looks back up, her eyes are glassy. "So much has happened, and so much time has passed spent being miserable, and it all just made me more bitter and turned me into this version of me that I just hate, and when Alex showed up, it was the first time in years where I felt a semblance of hope."

Allen feels herself softening, but when Damon pauses for a long time, she finally responds, trying to keep her voice as neutral as possible. "Look, Damon, I'm sorry you weren't happy, and I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the pregnancy, but you left me out of nowhere, with not much of an explanation, and you expected me to actually come chasing after you?" She questions, as she shakes her head, "And the fact that you've been miserable doesn't change much, it's not my business. I leave my all life and my everything just because of peace."

"I know; I just needed you to know." Damon says in defeat, shrugging his shoulders, "that I never forgot you, that I never wanted to be without you."

"Then why didn't you come looking for me?" Allen blurts out, half accusatory, half insecure, "All these years, you couldn't stand up to your love."

Damon frowns at him, and Allen can almost see his heartbreak in his eyes. "I did." Damon whispered.

"What?" Allen chokes out.

"I did stand up to my love for you, and I did try looking for you." Damon explains, "Not at first, but after you left and Adom came to ask me about you, I came looking for you in the city, but I was told you left soon after I did and never came back, so I looked for you everywhere and on every possible phone book in the near radius, but... I couldn't find you."

"But I..." Allen tries, at a loss for words, then finally manages dumbly, "You had my number."

"I didn't; I lost it months ago. I lost all my contacts and couldn't recover any of them." Damon confesses sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck, "I spent every single day trying to look you up, Allen; even before that, I tried to search for you online secretly, without anyone finding out."

"You did?" Allen questions, feeling her whole world move off its arches, and while it doesn't make everything better or fix anything, it does change everything—well, almost.

"I did," Damon confirms.

"But then you stopped?" Allen asks in a small voice.

"I did." Damon parrots, then takes a deep breath before he continues, "A lot of shit happened, and I was in a dark place, and I just thought that if I hadn't found you by then..." Damon's voice trails off, then he sighs, "And I just thought that maybe you didn't want to be found and that it was probably too late anyway."

"Oh," Allen manages yet again, her head aching from all the racing questions and thoughts. This whole thing was one fucked-up mess and is getting messier by the minute.

"But I don't trust you Damon, I can't believe whatever you are saying."

"I know, I understand." The alpha tries to smile but fail.

A long, tense silence falls between them as they each try to comprehend the newfound information, their drinks long forgotten and cold.